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James29’s Spanish Log | ||
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| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5185 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 185 of 668 28 October 2012 at 11:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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OK, another slow-ish week. I read some Atlas Shrugged and am about half way done with the book now. I am slowing down with it because I am not going to get it done before my trip and I decided I will likely bring it with me as my Spanish reading/listening material.
I had a long drive and listened to all the dialogues for the Living Language Beyond the Basics course. I liked that course and listening to the dialogues made me think about going through it again. The dialogues seemed easy to understand, but I have listened to them many times before. The audio quality of that course is amazing. I love the accents and the sounds of the voices. I did a couple skype talks. I have a new-ish partner and we do something different... we both speak in our target languages the whole talk. It is good for talking, but it is hard to think in both languages and it does nothing for developing listening skills. I also did a text chat on skype. My writing seems to be getting pretty good, but I am afraid that nobody ever corrects me when I write texts or emails. Every now and then one of my partners will correct an email and I make a bazillion little mistakes... like not matching gender or using tu instead of ti or things like that. I must say that one of my problems is that I am quite "sloppy." Earlier on I always thought of Michel Thomas when he used to say "spit it out!" and "all you need to do is get it over the net and you will be understood!" Sometime I should take some time and really try to be more careful about the little things. I have noticed that the subjunctive is getting easier for me and I am using it fairly often when I speak and write. I really think that PMP subjunctive book helped. It gave me a good way to think about the subjunctive. I am constantly thinking of and remembering things from that book. I had a meetup. It was decent. I am really getting to know some of the people quite well so it is often just a good fun time out talking with friends now. I watched an hour of an economics course. I'd like to stick with this, but I feel like I have too many things going now. I have to take a six day trip for work starting next week. I will spend a lot of time on an airplane, but I won't have much time during the days (other than the two days I am going to be on the airplanes). I want to take a book to read and I have not decided which one yet. I'd like to take something I can finish during the trip. I have been thinking that I will start FSI again... maybe when I get back from Ecuador and maybe as my goal for 2013. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4832 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 186 of 668 04 November 2012 at 11:43am | IP Logged | ||
James!! Heres wishing you a belated congratulations on reaching the 3 year mark, and sticking with it so long! I have been meaning to drop in for some time. As so often happens I find myself nodding in agreement with what you say. I really agree that the most important thing is to become comfortable with the most common 2000 words or so, and with manipulating the structure of the language- and I think thats the beauty of Assimil and FSI. When are you going to Ecuador? And how long for? I have a feeling its going to be amazing! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5185 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 187 of 668 06 November 2012 at 2:07am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for dropping by, dbag. Nice to hear you had a good trip. I am leaving for Ecuador on Nov 15... it is just around the corner now. I am starting to get excited. This is going to be great.
I was travelling most of this past week. I read a tad bit of Atlas Shrugged. I also listened to half of the first Harry Potter book on the airplane. I read several chapters of an investing book too. I also got to watch four or five episodes of La Reina del Sur. I also got to do a few long skype talks, mostly in Spanish. This week may be tough to get as much Spanish time in as I would like, but soon I will be going to Ecuador! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5185 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 188 of 668 12 November 2012 at 1:28am | IP Logged | ||
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This will be my last post before going to Ecuador. I am really getting nervous now. I have been so busy with work that I am realizing that I should have done much more planning. I have made reservations for the first week and a half and I am thinking I will wing it for the last week and just go with the flow... I will be taking four hours of classes every afternoon. I wish it was morning... but oh well.
I must say that it did kind of scare me to read online reviews of Quito. The reviews so often make it sound like a disaster where people are getting murdered on every corner of every neighborhood. I cannot imagine it is as bad as people say. We will see. I hope to climb a mountain (or volcano... that would be cool) and I'd like to ride on horseback wearing one of those Ecuadorian cowboy ponchos with all the colors you can buy in Otavalo... is that crazy or what? I hope to get over to the coast, but that will be difficult to do... if I do, I'd like to swim on a beach or try surfing. If possible, I'd like to get to Vilcabamba and maybe spend a day out in some town near the Amazon. In terms of Spanish it was a pretty good week. I spent quite a bit of time with Atlas Shrugged. Man, that is one hell of a long book. I am glad I like it so much! I watched at least one more episode of La Reina del Sur... maybe two. I am missing some parts that don't follow the book. For example, I don't understand what happened with Dris (the stripclub owner) and why he has a thing against Teresa and why she wants to kill him now. I don't get it. I understand he dimed out El Gallego and told the cops where the drug deal was going down... but why? What is the deal with them? Maybe I will look it up online. I liked Dris in the book much better. I did some skype chats... both text and voice. I wrote with one of my old/original partners who I have not chatted with in months and months. It was pretty cool... I have really improved a lot. When we were confused we used Spanish to clarify things... we ALWAYS used to use English to make things better understood. I have spoken with some new people on skype. It is funny how sometimes it just does not work out. I find I cannot talk with young people... I just don't have enough in common with them to have an interesting conversation... plus they are interested in such crazy things nowadays. I still make a ton of "sloppy" mistakes... things that I have simply not cared enough to get right... like I ALWAYS screw up the difference between tu and ti. One of my partners gets annoyed with that so I really should get it down. I also get confused when to use le and lo/la. I went back and looked at some of the earlier lessons of FSI... they are still pretty good and I think I would benefit from doing the whole course again. I am pondering my 2013 goals and think FSI will be on my list. I don't think I did much else in terms of Spanish this week. My goals for Ecuador: 1) speak no English unless it is a matter of safety or of critical importance 2)do three things I have never done (and will never do again) 3) have fun. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5185 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 189 of 668 21 November 2012 at 4:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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i have been here in ecuador since thursday night... so that makes about 5.5 days. it is great. this keyboard i am using is different so i am not going to use caps because it is not working well. anyway, i am having a blast and this trip has been wonderful so far. i am taking it slow this morning so i am reading emails and am going to update this log so i don´t forget all the great things i have done so far.
the trip was kind of a pain because i got delayed in miami for a few hours. i did get to watch a couple episodes of la reina del sur and read some from my investing book. once i arrived in ecuador late thursday i have really not spoken a word of English. there was a little kid i met who really wanted to speak in English so we spoke for about two minutes... other than that and calls to my family it has been all Spanish all the time and i am doing well. anyway, the first night i was quite nervous about getting to my hotel because i had read so many bad things about quito. the hotel had a driver waiting for me and it was a breeze. the hotel i stayed at in quito (hotel margarita) was perfect. $9 a night! it was totally safe and i had my own room and bathroom. there was wifi in the lobby and they had a little store in the hotel where i was able to buy a beer. that place was great and worth every penny of the $9. probably the best hotel bargain i have ever had in my life. don´t get me wrong, it was far from a five star hotel, but for someone like me looking for a decent, safe, well located hotel for a good price this was perfect. i found it on hostelworld. the next morning, friday, i walked around a bit. the doorman-security man at the hotel recommended a local restaurant. it was awesome. i got a steak, egg, potato, rice, juice, coffee and cheese breakfast for only $2.50. amazing. and it was very tasty. i was right in the middle of the east part of quito and the hotel was right next to a major bus stop so i travelled around a bit and saw some of the sights like the president´s house and some of the churches. it was pretty cool. i felt totally safe and i really changed my opinion of quito. i really liked it a lot. i could not believe how cheap it was. due to the need to be in cuenca on sunday and how easy it felt to travel, i caught a bus up north to the middle of the world. i am so incredibly happy that i decided to travel light with just one backpack. if i had more than my one backpack this trip would have been a pain and i would not have been able to do so much bus hopping. anyway, the middle of the world park was ok, but quite modest to what we have in the usa for parks and monuments. anyway, i am glad i did it. i got some good pictures of me on the equator. from there i jumped on a bus to ibarra. the countryside was amazing. there was a ton of poverty and it was just so different. the mountains were unbelieveable. the bus rid kind of stunk because i am pretty big and there was not a lot of room and i had to hold my full backpack on my lap the whole way. anyway, in ibarra i had a nice dinner and crashed in a bed and breakfast type place that was extremely nice. ibarra seemed like a nice city, but i really did not get to do much there other than go to a local mall and find some food. the next morning i caught a bus to otovalo! that was the point of my trip up north. the market was quite cool. i did a lot of talking with the vendors and really did not have any problems with Spanish whatsoever. i was able to do everything i wanted-needed to do. i bought my otovalo poncho for $15 and a chompa for $8. i was quite pleased. i was also able to simply chit chat with other visitors from europe who spoke Spanish fluently. from otovalo i hitched a bus back to quito and then got a taxi to the airport. no problems. very easy. i did buy my plane ticket to cuenca in English, but i did my check in in Spanish. the girl at the check in really wanted to speak English with me, but i insisted on doing everything in Spanish. i had to wait in the airport for about three hours which kind of stunk as i could not really do anything there. i arrived late in cuenca and stayed in a nice bed and breakfast type place i had made arrangements for. no problems. ride at the airport and nice place to stay... unfortunately there were a lot of roosters in the house next door that woke me up at the crack of dawn so i did not get a great night´s sleep. then on sunday i moved in to the host family´s house. it is very nice and has every amenity i have at home. the family is big, but they are rarely in the house because they are all so busy. people seem to congregate for 20 minutes for meals and then leave again. anyway, it is very nice. i cannot understand the conversations at the dinner table... they simply talk too fast and use too many idioms, but i don´t have any problems communicating. the neightborhood is very safe and i feel completely comfortable doing whatever i want. unfortunately, it is a 28 minute walk to school which is a bit too much, but i don´t really mind for one week. monday morning i found a local weight room and worked out. i was quite pleased with this because i did not think i would be able to work out here. one thing i noticed is that it is very hard to pay for anything without small bills. paying for something with a $20 seems to always invite a request for a smaller bill. this was a problem at the weight room but they were cool about letting me in. monday afternoon i had my class. i kind of screwed the pooch by waiting so long to make my reservations at the school. not only do i have to go to afternoon sessions, i seem to have gotten the last string instructor. he is very nice guy and i like chatting with him, but it is really more like just a four hour conversation. the first day he did give me a very valuable lesson on when-how to use ¨ti¨. that was very well worth it and fixed that annoying problem i have, but other than that i am not too pleased with what i am learning. i would really like to be diving into some challenging grammar. Also, i do feel a bit bad because late in the afternoon i am quite exhausted and certainly not 100%. my instructor and i have agreed that we will go for a walk around town and see things together for about an hour a day. he took me to a few local markets where i saw shaamans working their ¨magic¨and a few other pretty cool places. tuesday i spent most of the morning with a local lawyer who was related to the bed and breakfast folks i stayed with on sunday. that was a pretty cool morning. i had a hard time understanding him because he talked so damn fast. i went with him to the courthouse and also sat in and listened to him give some advice to clients. i could not understand the conversation with clients. he and i also went downtown and did some shopping because he needed some supplies for the office. school tuesday was more of the same. i met some of the students at the break and that was nice. i am certainly getting to know a bunch of people here. all the locals are very friendly. i really did not like how all the students spoke English at break. if someone spoke to me in English i always responded in Spanish. i felt bad because they were just being friendly... eventually i just started talking with the folks like me who wanted to speak in just Spanish or who could simply not speak English and had to use Spanish. this city is amazing in terms of how many gringos there are. there are tons of retirees from all over the world. many of the students are retirees. it is a very safe city and i feel like i could definitely live here. it is nice. anyway, tuesday night the school had a free salsa class. i am no dancer, but i enjoyed it very very much. i think i will do another one. i met some more students in the class. there are people from all over the world here. after class we had dinner which was nice and spoke in Spanish the whole time. this morning i am taking it slow. i went out and bought tickets to tonight´s soccer game. i live very close to the stadium. tickets went on sale this morning at 830 according to everyone i asked so i got there at 830 sharp. the place was locked up tight as a drum so i asked pèople if i was in the wrong place. everyone said tickets would go on sale at 830... even when it got to be 9am. it kind of blows my mind how everybody is so late and does not seem to care. it is just not my way of being... but i suppose there is nothing wrong with it. incidentally, this happened with classes too as my classes dont really start until 215 or 220. oh well. anyway, at the stadium the opened at about 915. i bought my tickets and got charged $6. the ticket said $5 on it so i asked about that and the guy realized he made a mistake. buying the tickets is a good example of how i am getting along here. i easily asked for the tickets and then the guy responded with something i did not really understand so i had to ask him to repeat. i still did not understand the words, but could easily figure out that he was asking if i wanted general tickets or box seats or what. then i was able to talk to him about the price. very easy. now today i am just reading-writing emails and relaxing. i will go to the gym again and then go to class this afternoon. tonight is the soccer game. i have never been to anything other than a small town soccer game so this should be interesting. i must say that this place is absolutely awesome for an immersion trip and i am benefiting very much. much more than my trip to the dominican... probably because of my level of Spanish. i feel totally safe here (everyone is about a foot shorter than me and weights 60 lbs less). i am able to do just about anything i want and i feel my Spanish is definitely at a level where i could live here and probably have a basic job. 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tibbles Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5001 days ago 245 posts - 421 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Korean | Message 190 of 668 23 November 2012 at 5:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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¡Que fenomenal! Espero que aproveches al máximo de tu estancia en Ecuador.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5185 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 191 of 668 24 November 2012 at 3:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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thanks, tibbles... indeed, this has been a great time so far and i have a lot more things to do. i am all packed up here in cuenca and going to catch a bus to guayaquil and then salinas later today. i have a bit of free time so i am going to quickly update the log with the last few days of things here in cuenca so i don´t forget.
wednesday night was pretty cool. i went to the professional soccer game. it was pouring rain, but i still went. i am not a big soccer fan and this was the first non-high school game i have been to. unfortunately there were no goals at all and it ended in a tie. i was soaking wet, but it was an experience. thursday morning i went to court with the local lawyer i met. it was pretty cool, but i really could not follow anything. we had a late breakfast and chatted about all sorts of things. he had to run some errands so i went with him. certainly quite an experience. after class on thursday i did the free salsa lessons at the school. i forget if i mentioned the tuesday lessons above in my previous post, but the school does salsa lessons every tues and thurs. it was really cool. i am no dancer, but i enjoyed it and actually could do some basic moves by the end of the hour. friday morning i lifted some weights and did laundry. i also read some atlas shrugged. i have not even completed one chapter in the book since i have been here becuase i am just doing so many things all the time. friday was my last day of classes. i don´t think i could stand any more. my profesor is nice, but we basically just talk for four hours. it is certainly not worth it. in fact, i think it is probably the worst money i have spent for my Spanish studies. this is probably not the school´s fault. i would certainly recommend this school (simon bolivar Spanish school) as it is well run and has a lot of activities and organizes itself in a way where students get to know each other. that being said, the four hours a day of ¨class¨ for me was a waste. friday night i went to see a local popular comedian. i could not understand ANYTHING. it was entirely crude local humor and entirely slang. oh well. it was certainly an experience. this morning i packed up my stuff and realized i really screwed up and should not have brought as much stuff. i cannot fit everything into my backpack. i came with a packed full backpack and bought a couple things here so i simply do not have enough room. i don´t know what i will do. next time i will do things different. all things considered, this has been a great trip so far. and am really getting to know some people very well. i hope Salinas and the beaches are as much fun. my Spanish is more than adequate to do whatever i want (except understand the comedian). some things, however, like the comedian and the conversations at the dinner table make me realize i have a very long way to go if i want to be ¨fluent¨or more in touch with the community. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4832 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 192 of 668 02 December 2012 at 11:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm really glad your having a good time over there. It sounds amazing! When you go
somewhere like that you realize that all the hard work is worth it. This is what its about! A whole new world awaits the Spanish speaker! Keep having fun, I cant wait to hear about the rest of it. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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